1.—Technical Field
The present disclosure is related to the field of network traffic management. More specifically, the present disclosure is related to load placement in data center networks.
2.—Description of Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use similar to financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Traditional data center networks include a top of rack (TOR) switch layer, an aggregation switch layer, and a backbone switch layer. In data center networks for data packet routing, data flow is established and forwarded using static hash functions when there exists more than one path to the destination from a switch. Static hash functions do not consider the current load on specific links in allocating the flow through the link. Moreover, static hash functions may be biased as they merely perform regular hash operations on fixed header fields. As a result of such biasing, traffic load through the network links may be highly polarized. Thus, while some links may bear the burden of a high traffic load, other links at the same layer level may have little or no traffic flowing through. This leads to imbalance and inefficiencies in the data center network traffic management.
In state-of-the-art data center networks a node failure or a link failure typically is resolved by re-routing traffic at a point close to, or directly on, the point of failure. Furthermore, in state-of-the-art data center networks a node failure or a link failure is resolved after a failure notification is sent to a controller or manager, at which point the controller or manager makes the re-routing decision. This failure recovery process is time consuming and results in inefficient re-routing architectures and results in time periods where the traffic is black-holed.
What is needed is a system and a method for load placement in a data center that uses current traffic information through the links in the system. Also needed is a system and a method to engineer data traffic in order to avoid congested links in a data center network. Further needed is a system and a method for resolving node failure and link failure in a data center network.